AUTHOR: caz
EMAIL: cazgobbyhotmail.com
SPOILERS: Meridian is the main one but it relates to a lot other episodes as well.
SEASON/ SEQUEL: It's set kinda a few months after meridian so... no Daniel (but no Jonas yet)
RATING: PG (to be on the safe side)
SUMMARY: Yet more Tok'ra technology, what could possibly go wrong this time?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: some off-world activity, please tell me what you think. Since you guys have been so patient and so great I decided to put two chapters up while I have the chance. I hope this helps make amends for all the long delays.
Jack and Teal'c had been exploring the caves for an hour and had not seen a great deal. Many passages had been sealed off by rock falls and the whole caves area was showing structural cracks.
'Well Carter, I've been walking for ages and I've seen rocks. Lots of rocks. So many rocks...'
'I'm almost done now sir. It's got all humid out here so we probably better be going anyway.' The sky had become incredibly dark and heavy during the time they had been there. The sun no longer shone down on the lush greenery of the area behind the gate. 'One lightening strike to the gate and we could have an Antarctic expedition again.'
'Don't even joke about it! I ache just at the thought of you putting on a splint on me again!'
'I tried my best!'
'I know Carter, I'm teasing. It could have been a lot worse. If it wasn't for Daniel...'
'I miss him.'
'I know Carter.'
'I keep expecting him to come into the lab, brimming with enthusiasm, giving me some idea about the purpose of the latest technological implement we had found.'
'Like the time when we went back to rescue Ernest and we practically had to shoot him to get him to leave.'
'He loved all aspects of civilisation, especially how they all linked together.'
'It's kinda ironic considering how uncivilised he became on P3X797.'
'He was so embarrassed. Real caveman behaviour.'
'I seem to remember another source of embarrassment... involving a revealing little tank top number.'
'Oh and I suppose you've never done anything embarrassing.'
'No.'
'Not even when Anise came to see you that time when they thought we were Zatarcs?'
'What? Erm... well... Hey! Who told you?'
'I have my sources. She's a bit obsessed with you.'
'Well what about you and that lemon hating nerd.'
'McKay? In his dreams.'
'Do you remember when that princess had a crush on our Danny boy and she made him over-use the sarcophagus?'
'Yeah.'
'I seem to remember being surrounded but rocks then as well.'
'What about the time when he had to explain about the UAV to a race of aliens that had no discernible language?'
'You mean those high pitched chalky guys?'
'Yes sir.' He could hear Carter smiling even in her thoughts.
'Beautiful smile.'
'Er... what sir?'
'Nothing.' She could hear him blushing. 'That was funny.'
'The funniest was when you and Teal'c were stuck in the glider.'
'Carter, in what possible way was that funny?'
'Well IT wasn't, but what Daniel said to Dad when we came to rescue you was.'
'Oh yeah?'
'Dad was trying to figure out the best way to get you out and Daniel asked if we could just beam you up, Dad was like "What am I? Scottie?"'
'For such an intelligent geek he said some daft things.'
'It's amazing how much you two have changed, you used to call him a geek as an insult but now you don't mean it like that. Do you remember when we found his diary?'
'When we thought he was...'
'It was so different this time.'
'Yeah, this time he ascended.'
'This time it was worse.'
'But he didn't die.'
'He did to me!' Carter's head was suddenly filled with all the hurt and anger she had bottled up. 'You spoke to him, you said goodbye and you never thought what we were going through! He was like a brother to me, and you just gave me a load of way of the warrior crap! You pushed us straight onto a mission!'
'Carter, I...' there was a long pause. 'She's right, I just didn't want to have to think that he wasn't here.'
On hearing this Carter decided it would be best to concentrate on the situation at hand.
'Sorry sir, I... its... have you found anything?'
Jack turned back to Teal'c who had been walking behind him all the way, pausing to examine things as he did so. "Teal'c, Carter wants to know if we've found anything, apart from the vast expanse of rocks which are all the same."
"I have seen nothing of interest, although the walls of the tunnels show an unusual amount of cracks and many sections of tunnel appear to have caved in."
'Yeah, just like the rest of the planets surface. At first I thought it was just drought but looking at the electrostatic pressure readings...'
Teal'c, c'mon. We gotta go." They set off at a full run.
'I just picked up some serious activity that indicates a storm is about to start.'
'How big?'
'Big enough.'
'Ok.'
'Hurry up! I'll start to dial out.' The gate and DHD were only a few metres from the cave entrance. 'C'mon, c'mon.' Lightening was striking the area around the caves. The ground was beginning to shake. The tremors grew steadily more and more violent. The few trees that were close to the gate began to shake and fall, some of them catching fire from direct lightening strikes. The gate engaged with its usual "Swoosh!". Carter looked nervously over to the caves. The tremors threw her to the floor, a blue flash illuminated the whole sky and then there was the most horrendous noise. She instantly realised that lightening had struck the caves and a section of the cave had collapsed. 'Oh my god! Jack!'
"Colonel! Teal'c!" She was screaming as she pulled herself to her feet using the DHD for support. The tremors were subsiding and her voice could be heard clearly. The heavens opened and heavy rain fell, quenching the fires in the trees started by the lightening. "Colonel! Are you alright? Teal'c! Please!" Carter was starting to run towards the caves, the rain running down her face. 'Oh god. Let them be ok. Please. Please god.' She looked at the ground, letting the water run off her nose.
'I never had you down as the religious type.' She looked up to see two figures walking out of the rain and dust cloud created by the falling rubble.
"Are you both alright?"
"Yes, Major Carter."
"What the hell happened?"
"The planet has a pressure build up like on P4X 639. This one is more regular though. The naquata concentrations within the caves that draw the lightening."
Jack smiled, he actually understood that explanation. He had been stood with his hands behind his back. Sam noticed this and frowned slightly.
"I brought you a present." He pulled his hands infront of him and presented Sam with a stalactite. "It was the only one there, the rest must have been destroyed in previous storms."
"Thanks." She looked at him, surprised that he had remembered.
"C'mon kids, lets go home and get dried off."